A practical blog for impractical people.

December 30, 2005

A Brief History of Mine

To build a case that you should give a shiitake about this blog, let me explain my background. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. My family lived in a tough part of Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. We weren’t rich, but I never felt poor-because my mother and father made many sacrifices for my sister and me. My mother was a housewife, and my father was a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official during his long, distinguished career.

I attended Iolani School where I graduated in 1972. Iolani is not as well known as its rival, Punahou because no presidents of the U. S. went there, but I got a fantastic and formative education there. (Punahou is “USC,” and Iolani is “Stanford”—but I digress.) I pay special tribute to Harold Keables, my AP English teacher.He taught me that the key to writing is editing. No one in the universe would be more shocked that I have written eight books (or one book eight times) than Harold Keables.

After Iolani, I matriculated to Stanford; I graduated in 1976 with a major in psychology—which was the easiest major I could find. I loved Stanford. I sometimes wish I could go back in time to my undergraduate days “on the farm.”

After Stanford, I attended the law school at U.C. Davis because, like all Asian-American parents, my folks wanted me to be a “doctor, lawyer, or dentist.” I only lasted one week because I couldn’t deal with the law school teachers telling me that I was crap and that they were going to remake me.

The following year I entered the MBA program at UCLA. I liked this curriculum much better. While there, I worked for a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings; hence, my first real job was literally counting diamonds. From Nova, its CEO Marty Gruber, and my Jewish colleagues in the jewelry business, I learned how to sell, and this skill was vital to my entire career.

I remained at Nova for a few years until the the Apple II removed the scales from my eyes. Then I went to work for an educational software company called EduWare Services. However, Peachtree Software acquired the company and wanted me to move to Atlanta. “I don’t think so.” I can’t live in a city where people call sushi “bait.”

Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple; for giving me my chance at Apple, I owe Mike a great debt. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM. I also met my wife Beth at Apple during this timeframe—Apple has been very good to me.

Around 1987, my job at Apple was done. Macintosh had plenty of software by then, so I left to start a Macintosh database company called ACIUS. It published a product called 4th Dimension. To this day, 4th Dimension remains a great database.

I ran ACIUS for two years and then left to pursue my bliss of writing, speaking, and consulting. I’ve written for Macuser, Macworld, and Forbes. I call these the “Wonder Years” as in “I wonder how I came to deserve such a good life.”

In 1989, I started another software company called Fog City Software with three of the best co-founders in the world: Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens, and Jud Spencer. We created an email product called Emailer which we sold to Claris and then a list server product called LetterRip.

In 1995 I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. At the time, according to the pundits, Apple was supposed to die. (Apple should have died about ten times in the past twenty years according to the pundits.) My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult.

A couple years later, I left Apple to start an angel investor matchmaking service called Garage.com with Craig Johnson of Venture Law Group and Rich Karlgaard of Forbes. Version 2.0 of Garage.com was an investment bank for helping entrepreneurs raise money from venture capitalists. Today, version 3.0 of Garage.com is called Garage Technology Ventures; it is a venture capital firm and makes direct investments in early-stage technology companies.

TrackBack

» Make room for Guy from TechBlog Scoble spotted it first: Former Apple über-evangelist Guy Kawasaki is blogging. A book every two or three years is one thing, but a daily blog? (Not that I’m committing to daily blog.) However, many people pounded on me, so here... [Read More]

Tracked on January 01, 2006 at 05:20 PM

» Make room for Guy from TechBlog Scoble spotted it first: Former Apple über-evangelist Guy Kawasaki is blogging. A book every two or three years is one thing, but a daily blog? (Not that I’m committing to daily blog.) However, many people pounded on me, so here... [Read More]

Tracked on January 01, 2006 at 05:22 PM

» links for 2006-01-03 from medmusings “Let the Good Times Roll” Guy Kawasaki's new blog: A Brief History of Mine (tags: GuyKawasaki) Top of the Class : How Asian Parents Raise High Achievers--and How You Can Too: Book by Soo Kim Abboud,Jane Y. Kim: Enoch: this is really dumb. fulfilment c... [Read More]

Tracked on January 02, 2006 at 10:19 PM

» Guy Kawasaki blog from Russell Page Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology ventures and long-time Apple man has started a blog.
Interesting. With all the fame and Bay Area connection, Garage still picked a Utah web design firm to do its web site.
A brief history o... [Read More]

Tracked on January 03, 2006 at 12:16 PM

» Guy's in the game from kathleen ream On December 30, 2005, one of my heros, Guy Kawasaki, joined the ranks of bloggers. He's a revolutionary at heart, so it will be really interesting to see how his commentary shapes up and how he turns the whole thing... [Read More]

Tracked on January 10, 2006 at 02:18 PM

» Brand Architecture: The Mac is Back from Strategic Name Development Product Naming Blog It appears as though Apple is moving towards a revised Mac-orientated masterbrand (also spelled master brand) architecture with its new brand names starting with Mac. I agree with this new nomenclature. The PowerBook G4 laptop now sports ... [Read More]

Tracked on June 19, 2006 at 10:22 AM

» How To Be Successful: Stephen Downes' Top Ten Rules from Robin Good's Latest News by Stephen Downes Guy Kawasaki last week wrote an item describing "ten things you should learn this school year" in which readers were advised to learn how to write five sentence emails, create PowerPoint slides, and survive boring meetings. It... [Read More]

Tracked on September 11, 2006 at 02:01 AM

» Dreams of being a VC? Take the VCAT from LUX.ET.UMBRA Guy Kawasaki, a VC with Garage Technology Ventures, has a great thing on young people trying to get into the venture business. It actually reminded me back when I first started in information technology. You would be amazed how many... [Read More]

Tracked on November 29, 2006 at 01:33 PM

» How to Be Different: "Create A Contagion" from Idea Sandbox Blog The crux of Guy Kawasaki's book "The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything" is about turning ideas into action! In chapter 9, "The Art of Branding," Guy offers advice on how to create a remarkable produc... [Read More]

Tracked on January 17, 2007 at 09:09 AM

» 10 Lies VCs Know You Are Telling from JDsBlog There are some things you say to a potential investor, and some things you dont. By investor, I mean anyone who you are looking for help from.
This includes, banks, consultants, advisors, and even potential partners and employees.
Guy Kawasaki w... [Read More]

» Online Field Marketing from Chris Abraham - Because the Medium is the Message "Mark and I were on a client call yesterday morning with a VP of Marketing who called what we do "field marketing," popularly defined as "connecting with existing and prospective customers through non-mainstream media methods, grassroots marketing is a... [Read More]

Tracked on June 23, 2007 at 11:42 PM

» The story of our story from change:healthcare yeah, another Guy K article, but this is a question pointed to the c:h team -which one sounds like the story line we are telling and does that sync with the story line that we should be telling about change:healthcare?
Read the full post here, and the ... [Read More]

Tracked on July 08, 2007 at 09:31 PM

» Online Field Marketing from Chris Abraham - Because the Medium is the Message Mark and I were on a client call yesterday morning with a VP of Marketing who called what we do "field marketing," popularly defined as "connecting with existing and prospective customers through non-mainstream media methods, grassroots marketing is al... [Read More]

» How to Be Different: "Create A Contagion" from Idea Sandbox Blog The crux of Guy Kawasaki's book "The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything" is about turning ideas into action! In chapter 9, "The Art of Branding," Guy offers advice on how to create a remarkable produc... [Read More]

Your website & posts are very interesting to read, so I'll forgive you for comparing Punahou to USC! :) Thank you for sharing your insight and experience with the web community- your perspective on self-branding was especially useful, and I'll pass it on to my arts promotion classmates.

Hailing you from somewhere down east (M'sia), I'm glad to have finally stumbled upon your blog. And I'm definately going to keep you in my list. I haven't read the whole of your book, but hehe my bf did 'evangelized' to me your stories, and those have stuck with me. Keep on writing and peace out!

we haven't met yet , i just saw you in the internet and i'm quite impressed with your background, let's cut to the chase, i an an inventor of a revolutionary, unique, water- activated deodorant that when applied by a person correctly, that person would no develop body odor , no matter how much he sweats for 3 days. now you know there's no deodorant in the market right know that can do that. only i can, my invention is patent pending, but i am looking for people like you to promote it and make lots of money along the way.. are you with me. if you don't believe me or a little bit skeptic of my claim. in will sen send you a little sample to try and evaluate to your satisfaction. no to get the ball rolling , let me know if you want the sample and i will mail it to you=, just give em the address where to send it. just to let you know the deodorant market in north america alone is approximately $ 2.4 billion , are you ready to plant a stank w/ our company. visit my website at www.coolprotectant.com and get more info. i know you are a nice guy, pls give me a chance to show you my innovative invention. thanks in advance.

Dear Guy,
I found you twice in the last couple of days. The first time was when I read a business article (forget which one) and saw something about LinkedIn and clicked on it and saw your before and after profile.

The second time I found you was today when I went to Iinnovatecast.com and saw a link for your site listed.

For the sake of your readers, I will mention that Iinnovatecast.com is a great website hosted by several Stanford University Business students. They have a podcast show that I had subscribed to on iTunes that interviews recognized innovators such as the CEO of Google, the founder of Craigslist and more.

I'm really looking forward to getting to know you and to learn as much as I can from you through reading your blog posts and books. I love your site!

Just read, "A Brief History Of Mine".. I'm glad I found your blog. I love the part where you stated that all Asian American parents want their kids to either be lawyers, doctors and dentists.. That is very true, as it not only apply to Asian American parents but basically applies to the majority of Asian parents worldwide:-) My extended family all share the same notion and belief that if you've succeeded in any one of those proffesions, you are the king of the world:-) I reside in Jakarta, Indonesia by the way.

Thanks for your kindness and courage. You mentioned you are interested to hear what we think you ought to write about. With your background in business, startups, and the Net - why not a book on how the new media will replace the old - i.e., print, TV, etc. Those folks are shaking in their boots, but still kicking.

My experience with book publishers is that they can hardly get to first base with sales. They too often have limited vision. I even had to fight with one publisher to include people of color in my health and beauty books. Racism lives: Hard to imagine but true.

On the Net, we are a huge swaying ocean of lights, spirits, and ideas. Thanks for your guidance.

Guy, It will be great to hear what were the most valuable sales lessons you learnt? Corporate Sales training programs teach you how to be "professional and fair". Real life shows different...
What mindset do you need to sell?